Most everybody remembers their high school years with mixed affection, even those in the "A" group had their share of torture, whether it be someone they were dating, teachers that hated them, parents that didn't understand them, etc. Those of us who attend at least one class reunion can all identify with "So what do you do now?" We can't say, "I'm the President of the United States" or "I'm a big movie star", but we can dream of coming up with something to impress that makes us seem better than who we really are. In the case of Romy and Michelle, they want to get past the memories of being mistreated by the "A" group at their Tucson Arizona high school, boys who either didn't know who the heck they were or got excited just by being near them, and come back to their Venice Beach California home with some sort of dignity.
So what do these cool fun women who make great party outfits do? They come up with a whopper of a lie and claim to have invented that item that everybody knows about but whom nobody seems to know who invented it: Post-Its! One invented the glue, the other chose the color. Cool, right? It all seems to work until a former rival who ran into one of them at their uncool job at a car rental shop shows up and threatens to spill the beans.
A great mix of dumb blonde comedy, fun 80's music, bad 80's hair and the slobs versus the snobs, "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion" is a comedy of stupidity that works in a very subtle intelligence level. The two friends are obviously devoted to each other, and as played by Oscar Winner Mira Sorvino and TV's Lisa Kudrow, they seem as perfect a couple as Lucy and Ethel, Mary and Rhoda, Laverne and Shirley, Patsy and Edina, well, you get the drift. "I'm the Mary, You're the Rhoda!" one yells at the other during a sudden argument, and this threatens to split them apart. "You're the Jewish one!", the Mary wanna-be tells the other. But once they see the nasty girls who are still just as nasty, loyalty is not only tested but things are revealed about the "A" group that many of us can attest to from high school reunions we've gone to.
Jeanene Garafalo is hysterical as the class freak, a goth-girl/genius who has invented the quick-burning cigarette. Broadway vet Alan Cumming goes through several different looks as a nerdy geek who becomes a multi-millionaire, and Julia Campbell perfectly spoofs the spunky cheerleader type who manipulates her friends (all but one) and is obviously overly self-obsessed.
It takes a while for the film to get going, mostly vignettes of Romy and Michelle's life together, trying to find a good job, find a decent boyfriend and dealing with the sexy Latin lothario that the one works with at the car rental place. But even though there's a long-time of set-up, it is all done in fun, and when meshed together (even with a fantasy sequence that threatens to slow down the film but really doesn't) the result is a future film classic that late baby boomers can particularly relate to (like me) and younger audiences will see some of the build-up to what has become now their generation. So have a ball, pull out your Cindy Lauper records, Madonna outfits, and just enjoy.
So what do these cool fun women who make great party outfits do? They come up with a whopper of a lie and claim to have invented that item that everybody knows about but whom nobody seems to know who invented it: Post-Its! One invented the glue, the other chose the color. Cool, right? It all seems to work until a former rival who ran into one of them at their uncool job at a car rental shop shows up and threatens to spill the beans.
A great mix of dumb blonde comedy, fun 80's music, bad 80's hair and the slobs versus the snobs, "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion" is a comedy of stupidity that works in a very subtle intelligence level. The two friends are obviously devoted to each other, and as played by Oscar Winner Mira Sorvino and TV's Lisa Kudrow, they seem as perfect a couple as Lucy and Ethel, Mary and Rhoda, Laverne and Shirley, Patsy and Edina, well, you get the drift. "I'm the Mary, You're the Rhoda!" one yells at the other during a sudden argument, and this threatens to split them apart. "You're the Jewish one!", the Mary wanna-be tells the other. But once they see the nasty girls who are still just as nasty, loyalty is not only tested but things are revealed about the "A" group that many of us can attest to from high school reunions we've gone to.
Jeanene Garafalo is hysterical as the class freak, a goth-girl/genius who has invented the quick-burning cigarette. Broadway vet Alan Cumming goes through several different looks as a nerdy geek who becomes a multi-millionaire, and Julia Campbell perfectly spoofs the spunky cheerleader type who manipulates her friends (all but one) and is obviously overly self-obsessed.
It takes a while for the film to get going, mostly vignettes of Romy and Michelle's life together, trying to find a good job, find a decent boyfriend and dealing with the sexy Latin lothario that the one works with at the car rental place. But even though there's a long-time of set-up, it is all done in fun, and when meshed together (even with a fantasy sequence that threatens to slow down the film but really doesn't) the result is a future film classic that late baby boomers can particularly relate to (like me) and younger audiences will see some of the build-up to what has become now their generation. So have a ball, pull out your Cindy Lauper records, Madonna outfits, and just enjoy.